Bid to address problem of unruly students in hotels

The Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations Malta (Feltom) plans to approach the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association to discuss the issue of student-dominated hotels in view of complaints of "disorder" by regular guests.

The MHRA has said it "is certainly not happy with the current situation of having students in hotels".

Feltom president John Dimech believed hotels and language schools should share the responsibility to instil discipline among foreign students.

Letters to The Times have conveyed the frustration of some visitors to Malta, whose hotels were inundated with teenage students, residing and being taught on the premises.

One visitor from the UK argued that "tourists and students do not mix" and that his visit was "less relaxed than usual" due to the fact that the students made up 85 per cent of the hotel's occupancy. He felt he was staying in an "up-market youth hostel, not a four-star hotel".

If it were true, as he was told, that all hotels in Malta accommodated students, "then the hoteliers' association and the tourism authorities have got a serious problem," Mr Dimech said, stressing the need for a list of hotels guaranteed to be student-free and for a notice to prospective tourists when hotels were occupied by students. Following Feltom's persistence that concrete action was needed on a national scale, a meeting was held with the Malta Tourism Authority and the police a couple of weeks ago. This should be followed up shortly by another, Mr Dimech said.

Feltom had also submitted recommendations to the authorities for a campaign on a national scale against the unruly behaviour of the students.

The issue needed to be addressed by the stakeholders and action had to be taken by the schools themselves, Feltom said, issuing guidelines to its member schools - 17 of the 45 licensees, which represent 69 per cent of the market - to be in turn circulated among students.

The MTA said it has not received complaints directly from tourists regarding disturbance caused by students in hotels.

Although it was aware of the issue through the media, it has not intervened, primarily because it was not an area of law enforcement, and the mix of clients using a hotel was solely the management's business decision, the MTA's regulatory director, Frank Farrugia, said.

"Naturally, the responsibility of providing the most pleasant environment rests with the provider, and we are keeping close contact with the major stakeholders through more frequent inspections of hotels, where such situations can arise.

"Having said that, we have noticed hotels where students are well behaved and mix well with the guests," Mr Farrugia said.

While expressing its unhappiness about the current situation of having students in hotels, the MHRA said it was "a measure to make the most of the empty beds available due to the drop in regular visitors experienced in the first six months of the year".

MHRA chief executive officer George Schembri said it was a commercial decision by hoteliers. But he recommended that, if student business is accepted, every precaution should be taken to have a set up that caters for them and regular visitors separately.

Hoteliers should also ensure that the standards offered to students reflect the category of the hotel, he said. Like other tourists, their complaints after a bad experience in Malta could be as damaging, Mr Schembri pointed out.